Curb

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher
Nightboat Books
Publication Date
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Language
English

Description

Winner of the 2022 PEN Open Book Award!

Winner of the 2022 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award!

Finalist for the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Awards in Poetry!

Curb maps our post-9/11 political landscape by locating the wounds of domestic terrorism at unacknowledged sites of racial and religious conflict across cities and suburbs of the United States. 

Divya Victor documents how immigrants and Americans navigate the liminal sites of everyday living: lawns, curbs, and sidewalks, undergirded by violence but also constantly repaved with new possibilities of belonging. Curb witnesses immigrant survival, familial bonds, and interracial parenting in the context of nationalist and white-supremacist violence against South Asians. The book refutes the binary of the model minority and the monstrous, dark “other” by reclaiming the throbbing, many-tongued, vermillion heart of kith.

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Contributors
ISBN
9781643620701
9781643621043

Table of Contents

From the Book

Settlement
Hedges
Plots
Blood/soil
Petitions (for an alien relative)
Locution/location
Threshold
Milestones
Landscapes (as portraits)
More curbs
Pavement
Frequency (Alka's testimony)
Estates : last offices concerning the curbs of the body
Notes & objects cited.

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Author Notes

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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors moving and thoughtful, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "loss."
These books have the appeal factors reflective, and they have the theme "immigrant experiences"; and the subjects "immigrants," "south asian americans," and "immigration and emigration."
These books have the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "violence against marginalized people."
Using documentary poetics, these collections explore the everyday racism South Asians experience in America (Curb), and large scale injustices the American government has perpetrated against South East Asians abroad (Yellow Rain). -- Basia Wilson
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the theme "immigrant experiences"; the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "family relationships," and "immigration and emigration."
These books have the appeal factors moving and reflective, and they have the subjects "family relationships," "violence against marginalized people," and "belonging."
These books have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "violence against marginalized people."
These books have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "violence against marginalized people."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "family relationships," and "immigration and emigration."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "assimilation (sociology)."

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and thoughtful, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "refugees."
These authors' works have the appeal factors reflective and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "family relationships," and "immigration and emigration."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and bittersweet, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "family relationships," and "immigration and emigration."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and thoughtful, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "family relationships," and "immigration and emigration."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and hopeful, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "belonging," "loss," and "identity."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving and reflective, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "nationalism," "violence against marginalized people," and "belonging."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving and reflective, and they have the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "belonging."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving and reflective, and they have the genre "poetry"; and the subjects "immigrants," "survival," and "family relationships."
These authors' works have the subjects "immigrants," "immigration and emigration," and "violence against marginalized people."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

This intensely multitudinous collection reflects the poet's heritage. Born in India, Victor has lived in Singapore and the U.S., and she explodes language through Tamilian-Anglophone lyrics. The book opens with the names of Indians and Indian Americans murdered by white supremacists in the wake of 9/11. This injustice serves as a refrain throughout, with GPS coordinates marked on certain pages to guide readers to find the exact locations of these atrocities. This is one way Victor tethers local incidents to global networks of information, art, and politics. Other poems co-opt language from U.S. immigration forms and imagine alternatives to bureaucratic discourse. Confronted with requests for concrete proof, the speaker considers the intangible evidence that establishes family relations, like recipes for sweet tea and dough batter. Other images prove to be unforgettable, such as an impromptu vigil ("you burn camphor on the stoop / so our names are spelled in flames"), the view from within a womb ("a ray breaking / the sticky pane / cranberry stained / glass womb") and an intimate encounter ("how a mountain range marks the cusp / where one nation plunges / into another"). This is an incredibly well-crafted collection by a globally minded, locally rooted, exceedingly brilliant poet.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Victor's unsettling latest (after Kith) chronicles the violence perpetrated against South Asians by domestic terrorists, government bureaucracy, and other agents of the state. While the poems offer an impressive array of linguistic and historical referents, they locate their political critique of white supremacy in the American suburbs. It is on neighborhood stoops and among garden beds that Victor, in her distinctive documentary poetic style, explores how "a yard is a measure, a curb its end," emphasizing the risk to nonwhite individuals presumed to be trespassing in white spaces. Sections alternate from lineated poems to prose that is a mix between reportage and memoir. For example, her retelling of the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla concludes: "On that day, I was pregnant & moving into my third trimester." Victor explains, "All my poems are manifests/ for burials elsewhere," and some poems even include GPS coordinates, inviting readers to seek out the places that are the impetus behind these mournful and angry reckonings with American violence. This stunning collection challenges readers to reconsider the fragile boundaries people share with one another as well as the reduction of bodies to mere scapegoats. (Apr.)

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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* This intensely multitudinous collection reflects the poet's heritage. Born in India, Victor has lived in Singapore and the U.S., and she explodes language through Tamilian-Anglophone lyrics. The book opens with the names of Indians and Indian Americans murdered by white supremacists in the wake of 9/11. This injustice serves as a refrain throughout, with GPS coordinates marked on certain pages to guide readers to find the exact locations of these atrocities. This is one way Victor tethers local incidents to global networks of information, art, and politics. Other poems co-opt language from U.S. immigration forms and imagine alternatives to bureaucratic discourse. Confronted with requests for concrete proof, the speaker considers the intangible evidence that establishes family relations, like recipes for sweet tea and dough batter. Other images prove to be unforgettable, such as an impromptu vigil (you burn camphor on the stoop / so our names are spelled in flames), the view from within a womb (a ray breaking / the sticky pane / cranberry stained / glass womb) and an intimate encounter (how a mountain range marks the cusp / where one nation plunges / into another). This is an incredibly well-crafted collection by a globally minded, locally rooted, exceedingly brilliant poet. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Victor's unsettling latest (after Kith) chronicles the violence perpetrated against South Asians by domestic terrorists, government bureaucracy, and other agents of the state. While the poems offer an impressive array of linguistic and historical referents, they locate their political critique of white supremacy in the American suburbs. It is on neighborhood stoops and among garden beds that Victor, in her distinctive documentary poetic style, explores how "a yard is a measure, a curb its end," emphasizing the risk to nonwhite individuals presumed to be trespassing in white spaces. Sections alternate from lineated poems to prose that is a mix between reportage and memoir. For example, her retelling of the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla concludes: "On that day, I was pregnant & moving into my third trimester." Victor explains, "All my poems are manifests/ for burials elsewhere," and some poems even include GPS coordinates, inviting readers to seek out the places that are the impetus behind these mournful and angry reckonings with American violence. This stunning collection challenges readers to reconsider the fragile boundaries people share with one another as well as the reduction of bodies to mere scapegoats. (Apr.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly.
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